Farmersgirl Kitchen

Friday, 26 June 2015

Salmon, Coffee, a Lazy Arm and Golden Kiwis on my Kitchen Table

Big Fish Brand Salmon Fillets are frozen salmon fillet marinated with a variety of fantastic flavours: Piri Piri, Lemon and Pepper, Sweet Chilli. Garden Mint, Eastern Thai, Sticky Maple, BBQ Sauce. They come in packs of two fillets and cost £5,89 per pack.

We really enjoyed every single flavour, the fillets are ideal for a quick dinner to pull out of the freezer. They have become a Friday night staple in our house and I will definitely be buying them in future. I think the price point is right too, as two salmon fillets without any flavouring can be around £4.00.
Rating 10/10

Customised coffee machines are here - introducing the new Nespresso Pixie Clips

A new ‘capsule wardrobe’ for the Pixie range

Okay, I know this does sound rather pretentious! a wardrobe for your coffee machine, but if you are one of those people who like everything in your kitchen to match, it's good to know that won't have to buy a new machine when you redecorate your kitchen you can change the side panels and voila your coffee machine looks like new and is totally co-ordinated for your look.

Here's what the people at Nespresso say:

This machine will be a popular choice for both coffee aficionados and style devotees as it features interchangeable side panels that can be adapted to suit any style or the latest kitchen design trends.

With an extensive range of colour contrasting side panels and a simple clipping system, changing the style of the machine to suit the occasion or mood, couldn’t be easier. This newest addition to the Pixie range will not only create the perfect coffee at the touch of a button, time and time again, it will also allow the user to reflect their individuality as they can change the colour to match their mood, their kitchen or even their favourite Grand Cru capsule.

Pixie Clips comes complete with two pairs of exchangeable side panels but the fun doesn’t stop there - 12 other pairs of clips will be available including Pop, Arty, Elegant or High-Tech making it easy and exciting to change the style – the possibilities are endless.

The Pixie machine features two programmable cup size buttons to deliver the perfect serving size of an espresso or lungo coffee. Furthermore, the foldable drip tray support accommodates differing cups for espresso and milk coffee lovers alike. Purchasing an Aeroccino milk frother with the Pixie Clips machine ensures the perfect latté can also be created, time after time.

I was a bit of a sceptic about coffee pod machines so was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the coffee, however be careful which coffee pod machine you buy. The Pixie will provide a great Espresso and stretch to a Lungo, but if you are a full on Americano girl like me, then you'll find you need three Espressos in your mug before you can top it up and have it strong enough. There are lots of different Nespresso machines so sure to be one to meet your preferences. I still prefer a big jug of filter coffee and do have concerns about the use of pods in terms of the environment, but I appreciate that they are useful in certain situations and for particularly for an individuals.

Priced at £139 (or £179 with an Aeroccino) the newest Pixie machine comes with two pairs of clips, additional decorative panels can be bought separately - prices range from £15 to £30 a pair, depending on the finish. Pixie Clips and panels are available from Nespresso boutiques, or online at www.nespresso.com.

Rating 8/10

Ooh I love a gadget, have you noticed? The Lazy Arm is designed to give you a helping hand, it's a flexible Smartphone holder can be clipped onto most surfaces. Perfect for watching cooking techniques on YouTube, read online recipes from your favourite blogs or websites or simply listening to music and making hands free calls,

The only thing negative thing I would say about the Lazy Arm is that you need to be strong to use the clip and the flexible arm has to be firm or it would fall down, but it does take a bit of manoeuvring into place. However other than that it is a really useful gadget and I found that you can also use it to film yourself preparing food, so there may be some of that coming to Farmersgirl Kitchen in future.

The Lazy Arm is compatible with most Smartphones. To use, clip onto desired surface, attach your Smartphone and enjoy the comforts of The Lazy Arm!

The Lazy Arm is available from Genie Gadgets at £8.95 which is pretty reasonable.

Rating 8/10

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from these Zespri SunGold kiwifruit, billed as a new super-fruit packed with nutrients and high in Vitamin C (three times more than oranges!). However, I was really pleasantly surprised, they were super-delicious, way nicer than the green kiwis. Sweet and with a real flavour almost like a very sweet gooseberry, although they are said to have flavours of mango and melon.

There are lots of recipes on the Zespri website for juices and smoothies but I simply paired them with some Scottish raspberries and served them with greek yogurt. I can highly recommend these golden kiwis and will be looking out for them in the shops.

Rating 9/10

I was provided with products to review and I was not paid for these reviews and all opinions are my own.

Labels: Big Fish. salmon, coffee, Kiwi Fruit, Lazy Arm, Nespresso, phone holder, Pixie, review, Sungold, Zespri

Tuesday, 9 April 2013

A cup of coffee and a Treacle Bite!

It's time to 'Get Random Baby' or so Dom at Belleau Kitchen tells us. Yes, it's time for another Random Recipe, this time using the Random Recipe Generator thingummydoodah, a technical term I'm sure.

It still required the dreaded counting of the cookery books as it grows every time I look, anyway my random choice was The Dairy Book of Home Cookery by Sonia Allison for the Milk Marketing Board, originally published in 1968, this edition published in 1977. The book belonged to my Mother-in-law and has retained it's place on my cookbook shelf as it has some good recipes in it.

And so to the opening of the book in a random fashion...it opened at a double page of biscuit recipes - RESULT! There were many to choose from: Currant biscuits, Cherry biscuits, Spice or Cinnamon Biscuits, Chocolate Flake Biscuits, Jam Sandwich Biscuits and on and on... However, I decided to go for Treacle Bites as I have a bit of a glut of rolled oats.

Treacle Bites (makes 24)

100g/4oz self-raising flour, sifted
75g/3oz rolled oats
25g/1oz desiccated coconut
100g/4oz butter
125g/5oz caster sugar
2 level tbsp treacle
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp milk

1. Combine flour with oats and coconut
2. Put butter, sugar and treacle into saucepan, very slowly bring to the boil, stirring all the time.
3. Remove from heat. Add bicarbonate of soda dissolved in milk.

This is so much fun, it puffs up like puff candy!

4. Pour hot mixture on to dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Leave on one side for 30 minutes or until firm.
5. Break off 24 pieces of mixture and roll into marbles.

Rolling the biscuit mix was easier than I thought, not too sticky, they do spread a lot and I would probably make mine smaller next time as my 'marbles' were more like 'walnuts'!

6. Transfer to buttered baking trays (leaving room between to allow for spreading), Bake in centre of moderate oven 180C for 15 minutes.
7. Leave on trays for 1 or 2 minutes before transferring to wire cooling rack. Store in an airtight tin when cold.

Treacle Bites Printable Recipe

The verdict: FANTASTIC! I think these are some of the nicest biscuits/cookies I have ever made and I will be making them again, I would also try making them with golden syrup as I think that would work well too. Now I must confess that I only had 15g of coconut so used some mixed seeds to replace it, so this is obviously also an adaptable recipe and if you don't like coconut, you know that you can replace it with small seeds, like sesame seeds.

And now for the well-deserved cup of coffee. As my regular readers will know, I've reviewed quite a few different ground coffees recently. Just before I went on holiday, I was sent some coffee by Aromo. Aromo is a company run by three ordinary guys who simply live and love espresso and the mystic of coffee. The main focus of their business is espresso coffee in single serving pods, but as I don't have a pod machine, I was sent the Aromo Bounce 100% Arabica ground coffee which retails at £4.00 for 250g.

We realy enjoyed this coffee, not being espresso fans we made our coffee in our filter machine and it was excellent, a really smooth rich blend at a very reasonable price and went very well with the Treacle Bites. If the pods are anything like as good as this, then they are well worth trying. Aromo coffee is available as ESE Coffee Pods Senseo Compatible Coffee Pods Nespresso Compatible Capsules

Free sample ESE coffee pod selection pack - 8 pods

Aromo are offering a free sample of a variety of 8 ESE coffee pods, just pay the postage of £3.50.

I was supplied with Aromo Bounce Ground Coffee for review, I was not paid for this review and all opinions are my own.

Labels: Aromo, Belleau Kitchen, biscuits, coffee, cookies, Random Recipes, The Dairy Book of Home Cookery

Tuesday, 6 November 2012

Ration Book Cooking - Tuesday 6th November

After day one of living on WW2 rations, I have found that what I miss most is coffee! I did notice it wasn't listed in the rations, so went looking for some information and this is what I found out:

Sugar and coffee are imported from South America and the Caribbean. In addition to the hazards of shipping by sea, the military needed great quantities of these ingredients. Shortages of European sources being cut off meant that Britain only had access through the US adding additional strains on the supplies and the tonnage lost to the war in the Atlantic also added to the shortages. My husband's uncle was a Gunner for the Merchant Navy and worked on the convoys, including the Arctic convoys to help bring vital supplies to the troops and the Home Front.

1940

The shortage of imported coffee in WW2 led to a rise in the use of Camp Coffee; a concentrate made from just 4% coffee with chicory (a vegetable) as the main ingredient. I can remember visiting an elderly lady and being offered Camp Coffee in hot milk, I am no fan of warm milk in any drink and the combination of the milk and the, rather treacly, Camp Coffee was not to my taste!

And while we are on the subject of beverages, I've realised the benefits of drinking my tea black, no milk and no sugar. I stopped taking sugar in my tea when I was about 12 and stopped taking milk when I was a student with no fridge (students of today please note: no fridge, no phone, no computer or laptop, no central heating or washing machine - we went to the launderette) however, I digress, where was I? Oh yes, black tea is going to allow me to make some kind of pudding with my milk and sugar rations - result!

Menu for Tuesday

Breakfast
Two slices of toast (National Loaf) with 1 tsp jam
Lunch
Leek and Potato Soup (see Monday)
Supper
Haricot Beans, Baked Boston Style (from Vegetables for Victory by Ambrose Heath) serve with Carrots and Potatoes

1943

This little book belonged to my gran, who must have worn out the cover, recovered it with brown paper and stuck the picture back on the front! I think she used it well into the 1950's as there are some newspaper cuttings of Elizabeth David recipes tucked between the pages.

The Haricot Bean recipe is currently cooking in the oven ready for tomorrow, so I will post the pictures and recipe later. In the meantime I'm going to give you the recipe for the National Loaf. Over at Lavender and Lovage, Karen tells you more about how this came about.

NB: butter spread pre-rationing!

Wartime loaf

600 ml (1 pint) of warm water
5 teaspoons of quick rise yeast
couple pinches of sugar
2 lb of wholewheat (wholemeal) flour
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon rolled oats (for top)
drizzle of vegetable oil

Method

Place flour in large bowl
Mix in all dry ingredients except the rolled oats
Drizzle in vegetable oil
Pour in warm water
Mix thoroughly
When dough comes together knead for 10 minutes until dough is silky
Place back in bowl and cover
Let dough rise somewhere warm until doubled in size
Knead dough briefly again
Place dough into 4 x 1/2 lb tins (or 2 x 1 lb tins) that have been floured
Brush top with a little water and sprinkle on some rolled oats
Leave to rise for around 20 minutes
Place in oven at 180 0C for around 30-40 mins (depending on the size of the loaf)
Remove from oven
Cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting

I cheated a little here and used the bread maker to make the dough, then baked it in a tin in the oven.

So how are we doing with the rations?

WW2 Rations 1940 for three people

Butter ~~150g (6oz)~~ 75g Butter

Bacon or ham: ~~300g (12oz)~~ bacon in the Haricot Bean dish

Margarine: 300g (12oz)

Cooking fat/lard: ~~300g (12oz) 200g lard~~ 190g lard (tsp of veg oil)

Sugar: ~~675g (1lb 10oz)~~ 650g (25g black treacle used)

Meat: 1350g (3lb)

Milk: ~~9 pints occasionally dropping to 8 pints~~ 8 3/4 pints

Cheese: 150g (6oz) rising to 675g (1lb 10oz)?

Eggs: ~~3 fresh eggs per week~~ 0 fresh eggs

Tea: 150g ~~(6oz) 130g~~ 110g

Jam: ~~150g (6oz) per week~~ 125g

Dried Eggs 3 packets (36 eggs every four weeks) 9 eggs for one week

Sweets: 262g (3oz) per week.

Remember to check out how Karen and Fiona are getting on in their Wartime Kitchens.

Labels: Camp Coffee, coffee, haricot beans, Ration Book, Ration Challenge, Vegetables for Victory, Wartime Kitchen, Wartime Loaf, Wholemeal Bread, WW2

Monday, 18 June 2012

Chocca Mocha Date and Walnut Loaf

I had the urge to bake yesterday, I'd been clearing out and tidying up all my cake supplies and saw that there was half a bag of dates that could do to be used up. As always my thoughts drifted towards the various blog challenges that I like to join. I flipped through an old Bero cookbook and saw a Date and Walnut Cake. But that wouldn't do for any challenge but if I added cocoa powder and some coffee...it would fit with this month's We Should Cocoa!

And so the Chocca-Mocha Date and Walnut Loaf was born. 'We should Cocoa' is a challenge created by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and Chele at Chocolate Teapot, but this month is being guest hosted by Lucy at The Kitchenmaid.

Chocca- Mocca Date and Walnut Loaf

200g dates

Pinch bicarbonate of soda

2 heaped tsp Nuvia Cafe or other instant coffee

150ml boiling water

75g butter, softened

75g golden caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

200g self-raising flour

25 g cocoa powder

30g dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

75g walnuts

1. Heat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 1lb loaf tin

2. Chop the dates ( I cut them with scissors as it’s easier)

3. Put the dates in a bowl, add the pinch of bicarbonate of soda.

4. Measure the boiling water into a jug to 150ml and add the instant coffee

5. Pour the coffee over the dates and bicarb.

6. Cream the butter and sugar, then gradually beat in the egg.

7. Stir in the flour, nuts, chocolate and lastly the dates

8. Place the mixture into the lined tin and spread evenly.

9. Bake for about 1 ¼ hours until firm.

10. Cool on a wire rack, serve sliced with or without butter.

I used Nuvia Cafe as I had been asked to review it. I must say I was a little sceptical, Nuvia is promoted as Healthy Coffee. It is Sumtran Arabica coffee infused with the extracts of 100% Certified Organic Ganoderma Extract (an immune enhancer), African Mango (a healthy, natural appretite suppressant) and Pomegranate (a super anti-oxidant) I did wonder what on earth it would taste like with all those fruity flavours.

The coffee comes in nifty little sachets which are handy to keep in your bag or in a drawer at work.

I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it, it looks like the old-fashioned powdered coffee or instant esspresso powder. It tastes more like filter coffee than it does like instant coffee, I like my coffee fairly strong, so it suited me. I expect if you used less than one sachet you could get a weaker cup. Whether it has health-giving properties, I would not like to say, but it is does make a decent cup of coffee and I had no qualms about using it in my baking.

This recipe makes a really rich dark chocolately loaf, the dates provide a sweet moistness and the walnuts a nice crunch. I think it would go very well with a slice of crumbly wensleydale!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I was not required to write a positive review and any opinion expressed is my own.

Labels: chocolate, coffee, dates, review, walnut, We should Cocoa

Saturday, 7 August 2010

Coffee and Walnut Cake

It's my DH's birthday today, so I made him this Coffee and Walnut cake from the BBC Good Food site. I think I would have preferred a stronger coffee taste but the cake recipe was very good and as you can see it turned out beautifully. The frosting/icing is made with Marscapone cheese, light muscovado sugar and Tia Maria - now that is absolutely delicious and not too sweet. I used one 250g tub of Marscapone not the 500g they recommended but you would need the full amount if you were going to cover the sides of the cake.

Labels: cake, coffee, walnut

Thursday, 24 June 2010

The House of Menzies, Weem, Aberfeldy.

If you should find yourself in Scotland heading up the A9 to the Highlands, take a moment to detour to the village of Weem via Aberfeldy where you will find the House of Menzies We were given a recommendation to visit there for lunch and we were not disappointed.

The building was converted from Castle Menzies Farm and holds a cafe, specialist wine store, gifts and art.

This colourful board greets you at the door with the specials in the cafe and other events.

The specials menu doesn't look particularly different but the prices are very reasonable for the area.

I had the New York Bagel from the special's menu, it was delicious, well presented and the salad was excellent.

My husband had the chicken, bacon and brie pannini from the main menu, again with a really fresh and tasty salad. Apologies for the photos they were taken on my phone!

Best of all, we ordered a large cafetierre of coffee for two and it was served in these really cool cups & saucers. It was also some of the best coffee and best value we had all week.

There were some lovely cakes and the soup with homemade rosemary & garlic bread also looked excellent, but I don't think the other diners would have appreciated me taking photos of their lunch!

Labels: bagels, coffee, House of Menzies, lunch

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